SWEET, John F. John F. Sweet, a former Atlanta councilperson who was one of the city's leading progressive voices for decades, championing workers' rights and environmental causes, died on May 24 from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 77. An attorney, politician and musician, John Sweet's influence on Atlanta is immeasurable, serving on the boards of dozens of progressive nonprofits, incorporating nearly 150 organizations, and helping them with legal issues when no one else would. He played a critical role in countless organizations, forever altering the landscape of the city. Sweet was the first attorney of record for the plaintiffs in Bowers v Hardwick, laying the groundwork for the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v Texas, which invalidated sodomy laws in 13 states and legalized same-sex sexual activity. "We had a talk about the epic quality of the struggle," he told the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 1986, recounting his efforts to convince Michael Hardwick that his case was important. "I told him that if he wanted to, he could be part of it." Sweet was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1977. One of his first acts was to introduce an ordinance to install voting machines to keep a record of council members' votes. They rejected the measure, only to approve it a few months later. As a longtime workers' compensation lawyer, he was a tireless fighter, and frequently represented clients whose employers were uninsured, meaning it was likely Sweet would not be paid. He championed the then unheard of idea that workers' compensation insurance should provide housing and transportation for catastrophically injured workers. Determining how to fairly compensate an injured worker is "sort of artful, like Martha Graham dancing," he told Rob Levin in a 2005 book on Georgia's workers' compensation history. "[Y]ou're wrestling with the big question of how our society is going to define being human.Basically, you're up against the definition of humanity." Sweet saw the humanity in everybody. His approachable demeanor endeared him to people of all classes and backgrounds. He usually introduced himself to clients, opposing counsel and judges as "John Sweet sweet like sugar." Most would agree. Sweet was born in Detroit in 1943. He grew up in public housing until the age of 4, when his family moved to Columbus and later Cincinnati. He became an activist and musician at a young age. Sweet's mother, Mary Ellen Funk Sweet, was a community and union activist and an elementary school. His father, Fred Sweet, was a leftist labor journalist. His biological father, Palmer Weber, was a progressive financier, academic and member of FDR's New Deal Brain Trust. When Sweet was 14, the folk singer Pete Seeger needed a place to stay after a concert in Cincinnati and stayed at Sweet's house. The impact was lasting: playing folk music with friends became a lifelong passion. As a teenager, Sweet and three friends spearheaded protests against racism at Woolworth's in 1959. He worked his way through college, participating in labor actions and student protests at every institution he attended. As a member of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) he demonstrated against the War in Vietnam. He graduated from Columbia University in 1967 and moved to Atlanta as a member of VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America). He received juris doctorate and LLM degrees from John Marshall Law School in 1975. He quickly found himself in the thick of Atlanta life. An ally and friend of Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, Sweet worked side by side with black leaders to build a multi-racial coalition that emerged from the Civil Rights movement. Sweet's involvement in city politics extended for decades, first as an elected official and later as a war room tactician, advising progressive, upstart candidates, particularly women and minorities. He served on too many organizations to name, including as chair of the Atlanta Housing Authority, and of the Workers' Compensation Section of the Georgia Bar Association, and board member of the Georgia ACLU, Georgia Legal Foundation, the Atlanta Civilian Review Board, Metro Fair Housing Services, Dad's Garage Theatre, Community Friendship and Atlanta Recovery Center. He founded, coached and reffed for the city's first intown soccer league for kids, Atlanta Youth Soccer, as well as a second soccer organization for underserved communities. A champion of the Georgia anti-nuclear and anti-coal plants movement, he gave advocates free space in his office. He helped organize the Georgia Conservation Voters, Atlanta Women for Equality, Help House, and Quaker Voluntary Service. For 10 years he was the pro-bono attorney for the Council on Battered Women after it opened its doors, serving over 200 survivors of domestic violence. Sweet helped transform the Inman Park neighborhood where he lived for 53 years. He spent decades renovating the home that he bought in 1971, and encouraging others to pour their energy into revitalizing intown neighborhoods. When Sweet bought his home, banks wouldn't make loans to new homeowners in intown neighborhoods. In order to buy, they pooled money borrowed from friends and family. Sweet believed deeply in homeownership and helped found the first neighborhood credit union in Atlanta to combat this redlining. In later years, Sweet formed a singing group that met weekly in his basement. His favorite songs were mournful ballads that told the stories of beleaguered workers but his outlook was always infused with hope for a better future. Steve Earle's "Pilgrim" was a favorite. "Sometimes the road was rocky long the way, boys / But I was never travellin' alone / We'll meet again on some bright highway." John passed away at home with his loving family at his bedside. He is survived by his wife, Marguerite (Midge) Mehig Sweet; children, Cassandra (Dalibor Eterovic) and Eli (Keke Ren); sister-in-law Christiane French; twin sister, Ann Brubaker (Larry); brother, David Sweet (Elaine Kihara); nieces, Emma French and Angelica Sweet-Cordero; nephews David Sweet-Cordero (Emma Fuentes) and Alejandro Sweet-Cordero (Kathleen Coll); grandchildren, Dalia, Roman, Dante, Eloisa. His sister Mary Ellen preceded him; and many grandnieces and nephews.
Published in Atlanta Journal-Constitution from Jun. 1 to Jun. 7, 2020.
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